Other Ways to Cook Dried Beans

Beans are a wonderfully versatile starch that we often overlook, partly out of habit and partly, no doubt, because most bean recipes call for soaking (which isn’t essential but does shorten cooking times) and long cooking. One solution is to use a pressure cooker; another is to buy dried beans from a store—maybe an Italian market—that has a large turnover, giving you a better chance to get beans from the last harvest, which will cook faster. Once the beans are cooked, you can heat them with a little bacon, pancetta, or confit, as described in the variations above; you can butter and season them and serve them with roast meats; you can toss them with extra-virgin olive oil and a little lemon juice and parsley and serve them cold as a salad; or you can purée them and add butter as though they were mashed potatoes.